Apparitional Introspection
by ghostesez
Summary: Maddie finds a few interesting files on Danny Phantom in a Guys in White computer, so she launches into an investigation of what it all means.
1. Prologue

**A/N: Hey there, I just wanted to clue you in on the timeline here. This piece is set after Livin' Large (cringe, I know), but before Claw of the Wild. Also, you should know that Urban Jungle has definitely happened, because I make references to Danny's ice powers.**

 **A continuation of my reposting from AO3.**

 **Rated T for minor cursing in a later chapter.**

* * *

Maddie huffed as the machine to her left buzzed and cackled, coming to life after being shut off for so long. She knew that the Fenton Ecto-Reader would take quite some time to power-up, and thus turned her attention back to the screen in front of her. After the Guys in White fled their home, accusing it of being cursed, the Fentons found themselves in possession of many items that the careless agents simply left as they ran out the door, screaming. Among these items were a few Ecto-Guns, a laptop computer, a small filing cabinet, and a handful of other gadgets. Since the agents had left the items, and "declared" FentonWorks the property of her and her husband again, as far as Maddie was concerned, they were her possessions now. Of course, if the government came knocking, she would had the over with no contest. But, for now, they hadn't and Maddie had taken it upon herself to try and crack the password into the laptop that they had left behind.

The filing cabinet had very little items of note in it, and seemed to mostly consist of dry cleaning tickets and grocery receipts. It seemed that the Guys in White left only the most unimportant things unprotected. At first, Maddie had wondered why the cabinet didn't even have a lock. After rummaging through it, she realized why. The laptop, however, was a bit harder to crack. She had been trying to figure out the password for a week now and so far, nothing had worked. After two days of trying and failing to manually crack the password, Maddie had programmed a bot to do so. According to the timer she had set on it, the password should be revealed within the next day or so. The laptop was an old, dingy thing and had no real governmental security to it. Because of this, Maddie suspected very little useful information was on it, but felt that she had to try anyway.

Maddie glanced at the clock on the wall. 3:32. The kids were just getting out of school now, no doubt excited for their weekend. Jack had gone to pick them up, telling Maddie all about some new ice cream shop across town that had just opened and how he wanted to take Danny and Jazz there after school today. Those two had really been working hard lately- they deserve it. Maddie almost jumped as the Fenton Ecto-Reader beeped that it was ready to go. She stood and made her way over to a counter on the other side of the laboratory, where the Fenton Ghost Fisher lay. She picked up the apparatus and pushed a small, yellow button on its handle. Out popped a USB drive. It had been her idea to begin implementing USB drives into the Fenton gadgets so that she and Jack could begin getting a reading on ghosts in the area. Most of the time, they were unable to gather an actual sample of ectoplasm, so an ecto-reading would have to do. At least for the weaker ghosts around Amity Park. She wasn't quite sure that an accurate reading could be gathered from the more powerful ghosts in the area.

Maddie removed the USB drive and made her way back to the Fenton Ecto-Reader. She sat down and inserted the stick. Pushing aside the laptop, she wiggled the mouse of their own desktop, lighting the screen. A window popped up as the Fenton Ecto-Reader read the USB. After just a few moments, a list of time-stamps and a thumbnail for each scrolled past. Each thumbnail showed a graph of detected ecto-energy for a one-minute interval. She scrolled up, scanning the graphs until she found two large spikes, about three minutes apart and varying widely in intensity. She clicked on the first, the smaller of the two, and a small confirmation window appeared. She clicked yes, and the Fenton Ecto-Reader got to work on analyzing all the data recorded on the USB. She and Jack could do this manually, of course, but the reader was faster, and more accurate. Maddie had designed it to read the specific ectoplasmic signature of a ghost to determine their power on a scale grade which ran from one to ten. It was the same exact scale that the Guys in White used, one of the only things that they shared with the Fentons.

However, the Guys in White had been using the scale for a significant time now, and this was only one of first few times that the Fenton Ecto-Reader had been up and running… accurately, anyway. They were bound to have a much larger archive of ghostly power than the Fentons. So far, the Fentons had about three dozen ghost power levels recorded, and all from low-tier specters. None of their readings were more than a 1.8. Maddie began analyzing the second spike in ecto-energy when she noticed a flash from the laptop next to her. She glanced over and read "PASSWORD AUTHORIZED. INITIALIZING… BYPASSING FIREWALL… ACCESS GRANTED. WELCOME AGENT O." Maddie sighed in relief. The bot had worked, and now she had access to the government's files on ghosts. The Fenton Ecto-Reader forgotten, she got to work on the laptop. Many tabs and windows were still open. The first on the screen was a window which showed a map of Amity Park. On the map were many dots, do doubt placed there by Agent O. FentonWorks and the "secret" Guys in White facility just outside of town were labeled in blue. Many other places were labeled with a red dot. She hovered over one near Casper High, it read "CASPER HIGH SCHOOL. 04-JUN-2007. GHOST 106D-456H DETAINED. GHOST 100A-200B ELUDED CAPTURE".

Maddie wondered to herself which ghosts these were, exactly. Obviously, the second one must be fairly important, due the simplicity of its number. She minimized the map, storing it away for possible later use. The next window was an internet tab open to an advert for industrial-grade bleach. Close. An unfinished game of Solitaire. Close. A list of Guys in White agents in Amity Park. Minimize. A travel website with dates for a vacation in Mexico. Close. A blank note page. Close. The last window open was a bright, white file with three selections, 'Ghosts', 'Humans', and 'Unknown/Other'. Maddie clicked on the link which said 'Ghosts'. After waiting a few minutes for the files to load. And grid-like list appeared in front of her. Each box has either a picture or a grayed-out question mark that was clearly being used as a substitute for a picture if the Guys in White had none on file. Underneath each picture or question mark was either two or three lines. The first was always a number like the two she had seen previously, 106D-456H and 100A-200B. The second line was a number carried to the tenths place, Maddie could only assume that this was their ecto-grade. Most of the ghosts on file had less than 3.0, and a few had N/A, indicating that no readings had been taken. The third line was only present on a few ghosts, and showed their names.

Maddie began to scroll through the files, finding a few that she recognized: "145L-876K/5.3/EMBER MCLAIN", "231P-764M/6.2/SKULKER", "324Y-024Z/8.7/UNDERGROWTH", and "176C-549G/2.2/BOX GHOST". Maddie clicked on the thumbnail for the Box Ghost, bringing her to a details page. There wasn't a significant amount of information, but enough to go by, "GHOST FILE 176C-549G. 'BOX GHOST'. SCALE SCORE: 2.2. LAST UPDATED: 12-AUG-2007 – SCALE SCORE UP-TO-DATE. SUBJECT DETAINED AND RELEASED NUMEROUS TIMES, NEVER ONCE GAINING IN ECTO-POWER. HAD TO BE RELEASED 13-AUG-2007 DUE TO REPEATEDLY TELLING AGENTS TO 'BEWARE'. CAUSED GENERAL RUCKUS, BUT IS NOT CONSIDERED TO BE A VERY LARGE THREAT. RELEASED INTO THE GHOST ZONE ON ANNOYANCE AND GENERAL DISTURBANCE MORE THAN ANY OTHER FACTORS."

Maddie huffed, clicking back to the main page on ghost files, and began to scroll slowly through them. She managed to find ghost 106D-456H, who had no name, but a picture of a white, ghosty snake. It was ranked as a 1.6 on their ecto-scale. After combing through the files repeatedly, she did not manage to find ghost 100A-200B, or Danny Phantom, both of which had files that she wanted to read. She was slightly frustrated, how could ghost-catching government agents not have a file on Amity Park's most famous ghost? Phantom was well-known all over town- possibly the country at this point, and the Guys in White didn't have a single file on him. It seemed absurd. After all, the Guys in White pursued Phantom numerous times a month. Maddie clicked back to the main page of the file program and clicked on the tab which read 'Humans'. Maddie raised an eyebrow at what appeared before her. The Guys in White had been keeping records on ghost hunters and scientists from all over the world. There were only a handful of records shown, but Jack and Maddie were both on the list. Upon further inspection, Maddie found nothing of real note, as her and Jack's files really only told of their locations and basic projects. There was nothing in the files which hadn't been released to the public at some point.

Just as Maddie returned to the program's homepage, the Fenton Ecto-Reader beeped and spat out a page from the laboratory printer. Maddie reached over, snagged the page, and inspected the results. Nothing extraordinary, a 1.1. She wiggled the mouse of the Fenton's desktop, to reveal a window of the very page already on the computer. She saved the file as 'Ectopus #1' and placed it in the file with all of the other ecto-readings that she and Jack had managed to obtain. Back on the timestamp page, Maddie instructed the reader to analyze the ecto-signature of the second ghost they fought the day before. Maddie was particularly excited about this one. That had been the day that she and Jack managed to wrangle both an Ectopus and Phantom. Both had managed to get away, the latter easier than the former, but the time that Phantom had been restrained should have given the Fenton Ghost Fisher just enough time to read his ecto-signature. After all, she now had plenty of data on an Ectopus. While she was looking forward to the data-retrieval of Phantom much more than the Ectopus, she saved it for last, since it would take the reader much longer to analyze an ecto-signature as complicated as Phantom's. The Fenton Ecto-Reader beeped, beginning its analysis.

Maddie turned back to the laptop's bright, white screen. The last section was labeled as 'Unknown/Other'. Maddie tilted her head as she clicked, what could possibly be classed as such? You either were human or ghost, and nothing in-between of that binary. One thumbnail appeared inside the folder, with a picture and three lines, "100A-200B/7.3/DANNY PHANTOM". Maddie squinted. So, Phantom and ghost 100A-200B were the same ghost? That sounded about right, since the map told her that he had evaded capture near Casper High. Phantom always evades capture, you may catch him in a net or the like, but he always escapes in the end. Maddie chuckled, Jack will be glad to hear that not even the Guys in White could capture Phantom. He has been wanting to do so ever since Phantom snagged Jack's original Fenton Thermos during the incident with the meat monster ghost, nearly three years ago now. Phantom was just too fast and elusive to be captured. It was very strange how he was, young but so powerful, able to appear and disappear in a moment's notice. He never actually spoke to the media directly. The rare times that the media had caught him saying something, it had almost always been to ask if somebody was alright or the like; a strange behavior for a ghost, being concerned for others. She clicked on his thumbnail, bringing up his file:

"GHOST FILE 100A-200B. 'DANNY PHANTOM' ORI. 'INVIS-O-BILL'. SCALE SCORE: 7.3. LAST UPDATED: 05-MAY-2006 – SCALE SCORE NEEDS REVISION. SUBJECT IS PRIME SUBJECT FOR TESTING. HAS SO FAR EVADED CAPTURE. MOST RECENT ECTOPLASMIC SAMPLE DETERMINED THAT SUBJECT'S ECTOPLASM CONTAINS TRACE AMOUNTS OF WATER, KERATIN, IRON, AND CARBON. SUBJECT MUST BE RE-EVALUATED TO DETERMINE THE CAUSE OF THESE IMPURITIES." The file went on for a quite a while, evaluating Phantom's growth in power and how odd he is compared to the other ghosts of Amity Park. Maddie continued to read for only a few moments before the Fenton Ecto-Reader beeped. She glanced over at it, puzzled that Phantom's ecto-signature took less time than an Ectopus'. She tilted her head the machine, which had a small error light blinking red. The printer spat out a page with only a few lines written on it. The test had been inconclusive- not enough data. Maddie spared a quick glance to the clock. 3:58. Jack and the kids would be home soon. She brought her desktop to life with the flick of the mouse and observed the same results in the window which had appeared. She closed out of the window, and turned the computer off. She did the same with the reader. It was Friday after all, a day that she always set-aside for the kids. She could acquire a better sample of Phantom's ecto-signature tomorrow.

Maddie went to close the laptop and ended up reading a small line of Phantom's file again, "WATER, KERATIN, IRON, AND CARBON". Such an odd composition for a ghost's ectoplasm. Some samples were found to have water; but never keratin, iron, or carbon, much less all three. Strange, she thought, those compounds are frequently found in human skin. She shrugged, assuming some kind of fluke. Tomorrow, she'll find out for sure. She closed the laptop and headed upstairs, right as her husband and kids opened the front door.


	2. Intrigue

The alarm beeped at precisely six o'clock the next morning. After a quick shower, Maddie headed down to the kitchen and began brewing coffee for the day. Upstairs, she could hear the faint sound of the shower as Jack finished his morning routine. Maddie peered over at the kitchen table, a piece of paper having caught her eye. She picked it up, glancing over the scribbled words, "Mom- Went over to Tuck's place real early this morning to catch the online release of a new game that we've been wanting to play. I'll call to let you know if I'll be home for dinner. –Danny" Maddie smirked, what a character that kid is, always kind and considerate of others. Sure, he doesn't do as well in school as Jazz, but his strengths lie elsewhere. Even though his interests were in space and NASA, Maddie had always thought he would make a very good humanitarian, as concerned with people as he always is.

After the coffee brewed and she fixed a mug for herself, Maddie headed down to the lab. The first thing she did was power-up the laptop left by the Guys in White. After a moment, she shrugged and turned on the Fentons' desktop as well. She began to rummage through the drawers of the desk as Jack entered the lab as well. "Well, Mads," he boomed. "What's on the agenda for today? Testing out a new device or are we going to analyze those sample from last week?"

"Neither," Maddie responded. "The bot I programmed to unlock the laptop worked. So now we have all of their files accessible. I found something interesting in their files yesterday, and I think that we need to look into it." Maddie pulled out a short, bent wire from the drawer and glanced at her husband. "The files that the Guys in White have say that Phantom has elemental anomalies in his ectoplasm. Since he seems to be more active on weekends, I figure that we could try to track him down and retrieve a sample for ourselves."

"What kind of anomalies?" Jack asked, clearly curious.

Maddie sat down at the desk, and brought up the file, "Water, keratin, iron, and carbon. Of course, many ghosts have trace amounts of water in their ectoplasm, but it's generally only weaker ghosts. If they felt it necessary to include in these files, the amount of water they found is probably more than trace."

"Hmm…," Jack pondered. He began to rub his chin as he stared off at the far side of the laboratory. "A ghost with trace amounts of keratin, iron, and carbon. Carbon I can almost understand in a way, since it is considered the building-block of life, but Phantom's not alive. Iron is a key component of blood, which he shouldn't have. But, keratin… keratin is found in hair, nails, claws, scales, and such. Why would a ghost have keratin?"

"All of these components make me think that the sample they acquired from him was a skin sample. Or, as close to a skin sample as a ghost can have. I'd like to find out myself whether this is true or not." Maddie hooked one end of the cable into the laptop and the other into the desktop, after a few button clicks, all of the files on the laptop began transferring over to the desktop, and thus into the Fenton's database.

"Good idea, Mads. Let's track that Phantom punk down and see just what makes him so damn unusual." Jack grabbed an ecto-gun and headed up the stairs to the Fenton Ghost Assault Vehicle, also known as GAV. Maddie watched as the download finished, prompting her to close the laptop and store it away for safe-keeping. She pulled a tablet out of the drawer next to her and powered it up, happy to see that it too could see all the new data. Maddie pulled her hood up over her head and goggles over her eyes as she headed up the stairs to meet Jack.

* * *

It had been five hours now since Jack and Maddie left FentonWorks in search of the elusive Phantom. They had gotten excited just an hour ago when the GAV detected a ghost on radar. When they turned up, it was only another Ectopus. Jack had made quick work of it, sucking it up into a spare Fenton Thermos before it did any real harm. Now, they sat in the GAV, parked in a nearly-empty lot near the middle of town. Maddie fumbled with the device she brought with her, inspecting the map that she had found in the files belonging to the Guys in White. Phantom was often spotted near the eastern side of town, near Casper High, FentonWorks, Nasty Burger, and the mall. Actually, most of his sightings were within just a few blocks of these places. However, he did have sightings on the western edge of town, Elmerton, and even a few miles outsides of city limits. _Phantom is fairly well-traveled… for a ghost, that is_ , Maddie thought.

Next to her, Jack was rambling about the grudge he had against Phantom for stealing his original Fenton Thermos. It had taken him nearly three weeks to rebuild it, but Jack was nothing if not sentimental and began declaring that the first thing that he'd do upon Phantom's capture was to retake his Thermos. He began to wave around the one which held an Ectopus, banging it on the steering wheel, cursing out Phantom and all ghosts like him and not. However, the thermos took one hit too many. It began to hiss, gas escaping. The Ectopus crawled out of the small hole and disappeared. Jack added the thermos and particular Ectopus to his list of things to curse-out.

After a small moment the Ectopus appeared before them, about twenty feet in the air. Jack immediately sprang into action, smashing every button accessible to him on the control panel. The GAV shook slightly as a small cannon appeared on the roof, powering up. "Gotcha now, spook!" Jack cried as he hit the button to fire. The laser missed the Ectopus altogether, the spirit now in a free-fall. Maddie gasped as she realized that it had suddenly been incased in ice. A quick flash of black and silver sped by, knocking the Ectopus to the ground. Phantom was fast, very fast, and it took him no time at all to produce his stolen thermos, suck the ghost in, and fly off.

Jack was out of the GAV in a moment's notice, aiming and firing an ecto-gun at Phantom as he tried to speed off. _This is odd_ , Maddie pondered. _He usually acknowledges us in some way before leaving. It's almost as if he wants to leave this area as quickly as possible._ Maddie jumped out the GAV behind Jack, an ecto-extractor in hand. "Quickly Jack, before he gets away!" Maddie cried as Jack took aim again and fired. This time, the projectile did find a mark, just not the right one. The Red Huntress tumbled forward, having been hit square on the back with the gun.

She turned around quickly, arming her own ecto-gun. She snapped, "Watch it!"

"Sorry!" Jack called back to her as she took off after Phantom. "Come on Mads, we need to get that sample!"

Maddie and Jack both took off on foot after the aerial battle. It quickly turned into a dogfight as both parties began sending ecto-blasts at each other. They both began yelling at each other, Phantom clearly taking a more defensive stance than The Red Huntress. The tide of battle rapidly turned against Phantom as Jack and Maddie both began firing at him as well. He only had a small chance of evading the barrage of ecto-rays being shot at him, and eventually found himself trapped in a net that The Red Huntress had shot. It ensnared Phantom and sent him careening to the ground. He landed gracelessly on the hard pavement with a loud 'Thud!' and groaned.

"Valerie!" He yelled. "What is it this time?!"

"I don't need an excuse to hunt ecto-scum like you, ghost!" The Red Huntress cried. Maddie was taken aback for a moment. The Red Huntress - Valerie, her name must be – had become somewhat infamous in the past year or so as the mysterious ghost hunter of Amity Park. There were others, like the Guys in White and, of course, the Fentons, but she was exclusively a hunter, whereas the Fentons and the Guys in White also had more scientific reasons to hunt ghosts. The people of Amity Park had varying opinions of her; some believe her to be a vigilante- determined to stop the threat of ghosts in town, some believe her to be contracted out my Mayor Vlad Masters to hunt down trouble-makers, some believe her to be a supernatural entity in her own right, and still some believe it to be all three. However, no matter what the people believe about her, it's hard to deny the hatred that she has for Phantom. Maddie always just assumed that Phantom had caused her some kind of grievance in the past, which is possibly why she began hunting ghosts to begin with. Whatever the cause, she and the Fentons never had any particular reason to meet. Until today.

Maddie was quick on the draw, having the ecto-extractor at the ready. She made a beeline straight for Phantom. Maddie knew that she had to be fast- Phantom was and he was sure to escape within the next few minutes. Maddie had her hand raised, needle at the ready when Valerie slid between her and Phantom, ecto-gun blaring. "Back off," Valerie hissed. "This is my catch, and I'm not having you Fentons taking that away from me! Phantom is my prize."

Next to her, Maddie could hear Jack loading his own ecto-gun, aiming it at Valerie. "Jack, no, let's be civil," she murmured. Jack lowered the weapon, powering it down. Maddie dropped the ecto-extractor to her side and raised a hand to Valerie in hopes of defusing the situation. "Please, Red Huntress, let's talk a moment." The huntress huffed, but let Maddie continue. "My name is Maddie Fenton, and this is my husband Jack. We're ghost hunters and scientists here in Amity Park. We have reasons to believe that this particular specter has a unique ecto-signature, and we would like to take a sample. It won't hurt your prize at all, and you are free to do with him what you will."

"What kind of reasons," Valerie questioned, clearly interested. She cocked her gun away from Maddie and towards Phantom. He looked to Maddie as though he was keenly interested in this conversation. Why, Maddie wasn't quite sure, maybe he himself doesn't realize how unique he is.

"Well," Maddie continued. "Over the past few years we have collected numerous readings of his ecto-signature. However, all of these samples were readings from quite some distance away. These readings show that Phantom here has a very distinguishable ecto-signature. We would like to determine if this is indeed true, and if it is, why." Maddie hated to lie, but of course, she wasn't going to go and spill to Valerie that she had illegally obtained files on Phantom from the Guys in White. For all Maddie knew, Valerie could be working for them.

Valerie spared a glance at Phantom. Finally, she muttered, "Fine, take your sample. But, once you get all your readings, I want to hear about them. This is my arch-nemesis after all, and I want to know everything about him possible."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Phantom berated. "I'm your arch-nemesis? What on Earth for? All the things that happened to you were a total accident!"

"Shut it, Phantom," Valerie hissed. She cocked her gun, letting it charge. Phantom rolled his eyes, unimpressed.

"Thank you, huntress," Maddie responded, respectfully. She knelt next to Phantom and re-readied the ecto-extractor. Phantom eyed her carefully, nervous with what she was about to do. Maddie plunged the extractor into his arm and pulled on the plunger, letting the bright, lime-green ectoplasm spill into the extractor's chamber. Phantom winced, but Maddie hardly noticed.

"Valerie."

"I'm sorry?" Maddie questioned, pulling the extractor out of the ghost's arm.

"You can call me Valerie."

"Well, thank you, Valerie, for letting me take a sample. We'll be in touch soon with the results." Maddie capped the ecto-extractor and handed it over to Jack, who took it and headed to GAV, probably upset that he wouldn't be taking Phantom hostage today.

"Be sure to include any weaknesses he has. Nothing I have seems to work on this one more than a couple hours, and I'd like to include weapons which have a more… permanent effect."

"Of course," Maddie said, turning back to Phantom. She gasped, Phantom gone already. A slippery one, he is.


	3. Concern

Right off the bat, Maddie noticed the general strangeness of Phantom's ectoplasm. This was the first time that she and Jack ever had an actual sample from him, and it had become a conundrum in more ways than one. The first day, Saturday afternoon, by the time that they had gotten it to the lab it was already acting in a volatile manner. Jack ended up having to seal it away in an isolation chamber just to keep the sample from exploding. By the time the sample finished bubbling and smoking, it was already Wednesday morning. Jack had been keeping a close eye on the sample, recording its changes every twelve hours, noting that the sample had been turning slightly more reddish as the time went on. By Monday afternoon it already looked more like a blood sample than an ectoplasm sample.

Come Wednesday, Maddie and Jack exchanged curious and disgusted glances as Maddie spilled the sample into a petri dish. She did a quick density test, and determined that the sample had the consistency of ectoplasm, and only the color of blood. A small syringe of the sample was taken and placed into the Fenton Ecto-Reader. Hopefully, with an actual sample, the machine could give an accurate reading of Phantom's level of power. Maddie split the sample, keeping half and giving the rest to Jack. He began his test, determining the exact chemical makeup of Phantom's ectoplasm, with a plunger and a small fortune in test tubes and well plates. Maddie began tests of her own, starting with the microscope. She carefully applied a small amount of the sample to slides, and placed them gingerly under the microscope.

What Maddie found stunned her. Through the lenses, she could see clearly many globs of ectoplasm, all behaving how she would expect. What she didn't expect were the thousands of little, red dots which filled the space between ectoplasm deposits. She focused the microscope, zooming it in ever so slightly. These were red blood cells, no doubt about it. Immediately she jotted the discovery down in the notebook next to her and called over her husband to look. As she peered into the microscope, the phone began to ring. Jack began to murmur about iron as Maddie picked up the phone, "Hello?"

"Mrs. Fenton? This is Mr. Lancer," came the voice on the other end.

"Oh hello, Mr. Lancer. Good morning."

"Ah yes, good morning to you as well. Unfortunately, your son failed to show up for class this morning and I was wondering, is he home sick today?"

"No," Maddie scowled. "He isn't. He should be at school."

"Hmm… in that case, do you have time to come down? I have a free period currently and I would like to speak with you."

"Of course, I'll be right down."

"Thank you."

After a quick round of goodbyes, Maddie hung up. She was slightly upset at having to leave such a fascination discovery for later, but Danny takes priority. She left jack to finish the tests and headed off towards Casper. Maddie wasn't quite sure why, but began scanning the skies for Phantom as she went.

* * *

"Thank you for coming down, Mrs. Fenton," Mr. Lancer ushered her in. Inside his office there was a rather large desk littered with papers, some assignments from his students and some office-like paperwork. A bookshelf which reached to the ceiling and spread halfway across the far wall was piled high with classical literature and teaching books. A single fern in a vase sat underneath the only window. Three chairs sat on one side of the desk, opposite one on the remaining side. Sam Manson and Tucker Foley sat in two of them, looking very much like they'd rather be anywhere else.

"Please," he continued. "Have a seat. Miss Manson and Mr. Foley are joining us today because, as close friends of Daniel, I feel they may have some valuable information as to where on Earth he goes so frequently."

"I wouldn't be too concerned about it, Mr. L," Tucker began. "Danny just likes to go invisible once in a while." Sam promptly kicked him in the shin. With combat boots on, that had to hurt, judging from Tucker's wince.

"That is exactly the problem, Mr. Foley. This is no longer a 'once in a while' problem. Mrs. Fenton," he turned to Maddie. "Daniel hasn't been present for a full lecture period in two weeks and the only reason it hasn't been longer is because he was observed for a full P.E. period by Mrs. Tetslaff. Believe me, Mrs. Fenton, Daniel is skipping out on at least a full lecture every day. It's not just my class either, every one of his teachers has reported this to me."

"Oh my, I knew that Danny has been having trouble with school, but I had no idea his truancy was this bad."

"Oh yes, Mrs. Fenton. If his attendance doesn't improve in the next two months before school lets out, he'll flunk 10th grade, and be forced to repeat."

"What? You can't make him repeat!" Sam exclaimed.

"Yes, I can, Miss Manson, and I will if he doesn't begin attending every lecture period," Mr. Lancer responded. For all Danny complained about him, Mr. Lancer always did genuinely care for his students.

Maddie turned to the two teens beside her, "Sam, Tucker, do you two know where he goes when he ditches?"

"No," Sam lied.

"Miss Manson, I would appreciate it if you didn't lie to Mrs. Fenton here. We all know perfectly well that you two both know where he goes. In fact, just the other day, I overheard him saying something about an… Amber, was it?"

"The thing with Ember was totally different," Tucker muttered.

"Well, be that as it may, he disappeared shortly after that," Mr. Lancer replied.

"Is that what this is," Maddie questioned. "Is this some secret girlfriend thing?"

"No. No. No. No," Sam stammered, cheeks red, and hands waving. "Ember's this character in a game that he and Tuck have been drooling over for the past month or so."

"Then what is it about?"

"Yes, Miss Manson, what is it about?"

"Look, Mr. L, Mrs. F, Danny's just had a lot on his mind recently. He's not doing anything dangerous or illegal. Just cooling off," Tucker said, trying to play it cool.

"Then where does he go?" Maddie asked, quizzically.

"We honestly don't know," Sam said, continuing the lie. "He doesn't usually go to the same place twice."

"Well, I'll need to have a serious talk with him when he get home tonight. I never did realize it was this bad. And thank you, Mr. Lancer, for bringing this to my attention," Maddie said, shaking his hand.

Maddie felt awful about the situation. She was a world-renowned scientist and failed to realize that her own son is failing 10th grade. How could she have been so blind? Once she got home, she was determined to get some answers out of her son. However, Maddie never did get to speak with Danny that night. At around eight o'clock, he texted her saying that he would be at Tucker's. When Maddie told him no and to come home, he never responded. Instead of tracking him down, Maddie threw herself into more lab work, she had to uncover Phantom's secrets too, after all.


	4. Suspicion

**A/N: What even is pacing, honestly...**

* * *

Maddie had stayed up into the small hours of the morning, tinkering in the lab with Phantom's ecto-sample. With what Mr. Lancer had told her yesterday, about Danny's very real possibility of being held back, she had delved into her work, hoping to get at least one thing right in her life. What had bothered her the most about the conversation with him, as well as Sam and Tucker, wasn't what had been said, it was what hadn't been said. Maddie felt so stupid, being completely oblivious to the fact that Danny had been struggling so much- sure, he wasn't the greatest student, but Maddie had always figured that he was at least trying. He would spend hours on end in his room, studying. Often, he would be so quiet that Maddie would forget he was even home until she wandered upstairs to see the door to his room shut. Even more than frequently being truant, Maddie could not get the reasons out of her head. Why was Danny missing so much school? How had he managed to keep this a secret for so long? Why didn't he trust her enough to tell her?

Maddie had told Jack all about the meeting once she returned home. Jack, however, had been so fascinated with some stray ecto-gun that he barely registered what she was saying. He shrugged it off as being normal teenager troubles. Maddie wasn't so convinced. Sure, he had his so-called "teenager troubles" like tests, friends, and bullies, but none of those things should make him so truant that he hadn't attended a full day in two weeks- longer, really. Part of Maddie hated that Mr. Lancer waited so long to bring these troubles to her attention, but the other part of her knew that this was her responsibility. She, as the parent, needed to make sure that her son attended class. It bothered her to no end that she failed at this one responsibility.

As the pot of coffee finished brewing, Maddie headed down to lab after only a few hours of sleep. The computers and scanners were still on, blinking and flashing at her as she entered. Maddie hadn't even bothered to shut down the equipment, she knew full well that she wouldn't sleep more than a couple hours at best. She set down her coffee on the table and grabbed the most important papers from last night's experiments. As it turned out, the Fenton Ecto-Reader had a much easier time determining Phantom's power levels from an actual ecto-sample as opposed to just a reading. It was to be expected. What had not been expected was the drastic change Phantom had made in just over a year. When the Guys in White analyzed the data, they recorded his power level to be a 7.3. Now, Phantom measured in at 8.8.

While this is a drastic change for a ghost, especially in just a year, the whole town noted that since the incident with the colossal plant ghost, Phantom had developed ice powers. In fact, the local news station did a whole exposé on this development not too long ago. A few people had even begun to worship him as some kind of divine ice spirit. The whole incident had really increased Phantom's popularity, and as far as Maddie was concerned at the time, it could have been a massive publicity stunt. After the readings from last night, she was less convinced. What on Earth could possibly have caused the development of new powers so quickly? The only possible answer was that Phantom had had them all along, but never revealed them. Possibly, he never knew himself.

Maddie made her way over to the well tray on the far side of the laboratory. It still held Phantom's blood-like ectoplasm, Jack's testing the previous day having been inconclusive. The machines just did not know what the cause of the elemental impurities was. However, the tests did confirm specific levels of iron, carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen. As far as Maddie could tell, the Guys in White had been correct in their lab findings. While she had none of Phantom's hair or nails to test for keratin, she found no reason to believe that it wouldn't be there. A week ago, she would be the first to tell you that a ghost cannot be made of anything more than pure ectoplasm or perhaps trace amounts of water. Yet, now she held in her hands the tests which proved that false. Phantom's ectoplasm contained properties which likened it to blood, even on top of its color. For all intents and purposes, this was Phantom's _blood_.

It had taken Maddie quite a while to recover from the shock of this discovery last night. _Phantom has ghost powers_ , she'd tell herself, over and over again. _He can phase through solid objects, he can shoot beams of energy from his hands, he can create ice out of thin air, he can fly. How is it possible that he has blood?_ Maddie still had no answers. Even after sleeping on these facts, the answer eluded her. If she didn't know any better, she would say that Phantom is the literal manifestation of a human and a ghost combined. He had always had human-like properties, after all. He looked human, spoke coherently, had a distinguishable personality, and was clearly intelligent. This just didn't add up. Phantom was, is, dead- the soul of a person trapped for eternity by whatever keeps him bound to this world.

Maddie began to ponder this simple fact. True, not all ghosts were once human, in fact, many had been animals, such as dogs. The ghosts of humans were always more intelligent that their animalistic counterparts, but Phantom was especially so. After three years of observing Phantom from afar, she and Jack had begun to note that Phantom is very logical, a bit cunning, and clearly possesses certain levels of emotion. By definition, a ghost cannot have these traits, it's unheard of and impossible. Suddenly, everything snapped into place. Phantom doesn't act like other ghosts because he isn't like other ghosts. Maddie lunged for a pen and paper, jotting down her notes as she went.  
 _1\. Has emotions, or the capacity for emotions_  
 _2\. Displays levels of logical thinking and intellect_  
 _3\. Grows in power very rapidly_  
 _4\. Human-like appearance and demeanor_  
 _5\. Has access to every basic ghostly power_  
 _6\. Is ostracized by other ghosts_

At the very bottom of the paper she scribbled ' _Hybrid_ ', underlining it several times. If this is true, it could mean the break-down of paranormal research. New test would need to be conducted, old experiments reviewed and revisited. She and Jack may have to start over in many areas of their research, but it would be worth it to uncover a truth this important. Maddie began wondering if Phantom himself even knew. She had to find out.

* * *

It was four o'clock in the afternoon by the time Danny graced FentonWorks with his presence again. By that time, Maddie had cooled down significantly, having been enamored by Phantom and his unusual ectoplasm all day. Once Danny was inside, he tried to make a beeline for his room, but was ultimately stopped by his mother before even reaching the stairs. She had left the lab only about twenty minutes prior, Tucker's mother having been nice enough to call ahead. She sat on the large couch in the living room, having decided that neutral ground would be ideal for a heart-to-heart. Jack had taken Jazz to a book signing by her favorite author, so Maddie was hoping to finally get a chance to speak with him without any interruptions. With a sigh and slumped shoulders, he sat down next to her.

"Well," Maddie began. "As I'm sure you know by now, I spoke with Mr. Lancer yesterday. He's informed me that if your attendance doesn't greatly improve before summer, you have the very real possibility of flunking tenth grade."

"Yeah, I know," he responded.

"Daniel, this is serious. Colleges and universities don't like to see repeated grades. Your chances at NASA will be out the window if you allow this to happen. You need to start attending- you'll pass through sophomore year, and I'm sure your grades will improve as well. Better grades will get you into a better university. If you're really serious about NASA, then you absolutely must pass this year with high grades. Danny, don't you understand? This is your future."

"I understand, Mom, I'll try to do better," he said, fidgeting.

"You may try to do better, but what about all these missed classes I've been hearing about? You didn't say that you'll start attending all your classes."

"Because I can't make a promise like that," he trembled, nearly whispering.

"Why can't you make a promise like that?"

"Because more things than school occupy my time, Mom."

"Like what?"

"Like… other things."

"Daniel James."

"I don't really want to talk about it, okay?"

"Daniel, please," Maddie pleaded. "I need to know what's wrong so I can help. I just want to help you, Danny. I love you, you know?"

"Yeah, I know, Mom. I just don't feel comfortable talking about it with you and Dad."

"Why not?"

"I just don't."

"Danny, please, stop with the few word answers. Specifically, why don't you feel comfortable talking about it with me and your father? Who all knows?"

"Jazz knows."

"What does she know, sweetheart?" Maddie took her son's hands, clasping them tight.

"Well," Danny muttered, looking down at the carpet. "I would have told you sooner, but I hear what you and Dad say about it, and I feel like it's better left unsaid."

Maddie felt her blood turn to ice in her veins. There was something which was bothering Danny, and something she had said made him decide not to tell. _What a horrible parent I am_ , Maddie thought. _My own prejudices make my son feel like he can't speak to me about his problems_. Maddie cupped her mouth with a gloved hand. She didn't even realize that her eyes had begun to water until a tear rolled down her cheek.

"Mom?" Danny said, looking at her nervously. "It's not that bad, it's something you said a long time ago to Dad. Besides, my little problem is just that. Little. It's nothing to get worked up over, I promise."

Maddie knew he was lying. She wasn't quite sure how, but she knew. "If your problem is so little, it wouldn't be impacting you like this. You wouldn't have told only your friends and Jazz if it is so little. Danny, please."

"Mom," he looked at her through dulled, blue eyes. "It's just something that I don't want to talk about is all. It's my problem, and I'm dealing with it on my own." He paused for a long while before continuing, "I promise that I'll make it to more classes, and I promise to bring up my grades. I don't want you worrying over nothing."

"Promise?" Maddie asked, kissing his cheek.

"Promise," Danny replied.

Danny eventually left to finish his homework while Maddie remained on the couch, inwardly sobbing. She had no idea what to say to Danny. To say to Jazz. To say to Jack. What could she and Jack have possibly said to make Danny so nervous about talking to them? If Danny felt this way, is Jazz hiding something too? Maddie wasn't even sure how to go about this now. Should she wait and see what happens, or try to find out what is bothering Danny? Is it out of place to try and investigate where her son clearly doesn't want her meddling? No, she decided. She needed to find out what is wrong with Danny in order to help, and Jazz may just be the key to that.


	5. Arrangement

It had been a week since Maddie sat down with Danny to discuss his attendance and grades. In that time, Maddie had noticed the boy trying harder- studying more, attending classes, goofing off less. In fact, Mr. Lancer had called the morning before to discuss with Maddie her son's improvements, and in just a week's time, he had pulled his math grade up a whole letter grade. While Maddie was thrilled with these developments, she couldn't shake the feeling deep in her gut that this was all a ploy. Doing better in school to keep her off his back and not continue to ask questions. She hated to think that way about her own son, but something was nagging at her that this was exactly what he was doing. But, there was something much deeper going on here.

Just three nights ago, Maddie was sitting in the kitchen, tinkering with a new invention of Jack's while Danny was doing his homework. It had been a quiet evening, listening to the dulled background noise of some gameshow on the television in the kitchen when it was interrupted by a breaking news report. Some technology ghost had decided to possess the power plant on the outskirts of town, yelling out his evil master plan for everyone to hear. The reporter was nearly jumping up and down in excitement as she anticipated doing a report on a fight between the technology ghost and Phantom. However, Phantom never showed up. Instead, Valerie took care of the situation, speeding in and out as quickly as lightning. The whole time the report aired, Danny stared at the television with an unusual expression. Guilt maybe? Why would he ever feel guilty about this?

Phantom had been mysteriously absent the past week or so, not gone, just seen less. He seemed to have made Valerie do most of the lighter jobs lately. A reason why, Maddie has not yet found. She was hoping to get many answers today, if possible. Every day since she began her theory of ghost hybrids, she patrolled town, looking for both Phantom and Valerie. She hadn't seen hide nor hair of either, almost as if they had begun avoiding her. When she would go home in evenings and watch the nightly news, they reporters would discuss the day's ghost sightings, it was necessary here in Amity Park, after all. It always seemed like the both of them would always appear on the opposite end of town from wherever she was at that point in the day.

It was an unusual pattern. Weak ghost? Valerie. Powerful ghost? Phantom. Had they possibly begun working together? When Maddie had met Valerie nearly two weeks ago, she hated the ghost boy. What could possibly have changed that? Or, perhaps this was one big coincidence. Yes, it had to be a coincidence. Maybe Phantom has been pawning off the weaker ghosts on Valerie, and maybe Maddie has just been very unlucky with her location in relation to the ghost attacks. Whichever reality turned out to be true, one thing is for certain, Phantom has definitely decreased his appearances around town. Probably on purpose. Something is causing him to draw back a bit. _I wonder…_ , Maddie thought. _Does this have anything to do with me? Ever since I took a sample of his ectoplasm, he has been really withdrawn. Avoiding the spotlight all together. Does he possibly know about his strange ectoplasm? Is he really a hybrid, and does he know that I suspect him of such? He can't possibly, not unless he has access to FentonWorks. Turns out that Jack's ghost shield-lined walls worked after all. I'll have to let him know when get home…_

Maddie's thoughts trailed off as the device in her hand beeped. She looked down at the machine. It was small, about the size of a tablet, with a long antenna and a radar. Jack had built it a while back to detect ghosts. One of the few inventions which really held its value. _Perfect, no matter how powerful this ghost is, I'll be able to speak with one of them._ She jammed the keys into the ignition, turning it fiercely. The engine roared to life and Maddie sped off in the direction of the ghost. She arrived to a peculiar scene. There was a small, blue ghost hovering above an expanse of about two dozen boxes, laughing at Valerie, who had been trapped by a large roll of bubble wrap. She was struggling to get free, throwing every curse in the dictionary his way. He only laughed, telling her to beware is "fierce cartons and crates of doom".

Maddie sprang into action- her ecto-gun out and charging up before the GAV had even completely stopped moving. She tumbled out of the vehicle, landing a shot square into the ghost's chest. He rolled back about ten feet, giving Maddie plenty of time to uncap a Fenton Thermos, sucking the ghost inside with a screeching "Beware!" Valerie still struggled with the binding of the bubble wrap. Maddie knelt down next to her, using a small pocket knife to cut the fellow ghost hunter out of her entrapment. "Thanks," Valerie mumbled. "But what are you doing here?"

"I though you wanted to know the results of the experiments," Maddie said, folding away her pocket knife without glancing up.

"Yeah, I did," Valerie chipped up. "Find anything interesting?"

"Well, yes, actually. But I can't tell you quite yet, not until I get you to agree to something," Maddie responded, tossing the thermos into the vehicle beside her.

"What? Confidentiality?"

"Not quite, I need your help with something."

"Oh yeah?" Maddie could see her raised eyebrow even from under her helmet.

"I need to capture Phantom, interrogate him a bit."

"You want to capture Phantom? Count me in, information or not!"

 _Hmm_ , Maddie thought. _So, they aren't working together, after all. Maybe this one is trustworthy._ She sighed, "First, we need to figure out a way to capture Phantom. He's slippery, we need to be careful."

"Oh yeah, he's been a pain of mine ever since he first started showing his face around this town. I've got some new tools that I think my work on him," Valerie said, pulling a rope out of her sled. "This is a new addition to my arsenal. It's supposed to short-out a ghost's powers in addition to binding them, as opposed to just the latter. The one problem is, we'll probably need to knock him out or something first so we can even get the rope tied around him."

"Well," Maddie pondered. "Jack and I have been working on an invention which should ground a ghost for a few minutes, maybe we can tackle and tie him up if he's unable to fly away. The only problem is that it's still a prototype in its very earliest stages of being tested."

"It may just be our best bet, it being a prototype isn't our only problem."

"Hmm?"

"How will we draw Phantom out? He hasn't exactly been available the last week, if you haven't noticed."

"He shows up when people are in danger. Stronger ghosts. He's only been going after six point zero and above ghosts the past week."

"Six point zero?"

"Oh, well, Jack and I have been taking to classifying ghosts based on their power on a one to ten scale."

"Where's Phantom?"

"Eight point eight."

"Damn."

"He measured in at seven point three only a year ago. I'm attributing this massive spike in power to the ice powers that he's developed. We need to be careful."

"Okay, how about this," Valerie said, holding out her hand. "Give me your phone, I'll put my cell number in it, and you call me next time a six point zero surfaces. I'll show up with the rope, and you with your new device. We'll catch Phantom, I know we will." Maddie handed over her phone reluctantly, watching Valerie input her number. Once she was done, she handed it back to Maddie, "Now, will you tell me what it is you found out?"

Maddie sighed, she didn't really want to tell Valerie all she had uncovered, but a promise is a promise, "I believe that I have uncovered evidence which could possibly lead to Phantom being an apparition of distinctly human properties. His ectoplasm displays evidence of having blood-like properties, among other things."

Valerie look at her quizzically, "What do you mean, 'other things'?"

"Well, Phantom always has been rather unusual for a ghost. Just from observance of him, he displays high levels of intellect, notable logic and reason, he has a distinct personality, and now, we may just have discovered properties in his blood which could mean that he is something other than a ghost."

"Like what?"

"If I'm right, he could possibly be a hybrid. Half-human and half-ghost. In limbo between the two, in a way."

"How is that possible?"

"I'm not sure. By all laws and theories of the universe, it isn't. However, the evidence is just too strong to ignore this. I must find out from Phantom, by _force_ if necessary," Maddie made sure to emphasis force as much as possible. This whole ordeal was just too intriguing to be left alone. She had to uncover the truth.


	6. Discovery

It was another two days by the time a 6.0 or above showed up in Amity Park. Maddie had been in the kitchen, discussing her theory with Jack when the Fenton Finder blared. It had been a mild Sunday, just past noon when the sky suddenly tuned gray, rain pouring down such large quantities that by the time Maddie had found Valerie's number in her phone, half the street was already flooded. Maddie gave her the approximate location of the ghost, near the mall, and Valerie gave an enthusiastic agreement to meet. Maddie and Jack promptly grabbed their new prototype and hurried out the door and into the GAV before getting too drenched. Maddie sat with the device on her lap, pinning it down as Jack bumped and flew off every possible dip in the road. While the device had no official name, Jack had begun mockingly calling it the Fenton Phantom-Neutralizer. What an odd name, really. Maddie had never noticed before how similar these two names really are until Jack had actually begun saying it. Fenton… Phantom. Curious.

Maddie snapped out of the vehicle just as Jack roared into the mall's parking lot. It was packed with bystanders, all looking up with horrified and interested expressions as they tried to shelter themselves in the downpour. Many people in Amity Park had become numbed to the real dangers of ghosts over the years. Attacks were nearly a daily occurrence, and many seemed to care very little or not notice at all. These people had begun to expect being saved, one way or another. Maddie exited the car, looking up. Phantom was already engaged in battle with Vortex, the ghost who had wreaked havoc on the town just a couple months ago. Maddie looked around hurriedly. She had to come up with a plan. Fast.

Just then, a loud boom echoed through the air, sending a shockwave through the crowd as Vortex slammed Phantom down onto the roof of the mall. The roof… of course. Maddie beckoned her husband over, screaming in the torrential rain, "The roof, Jack! That's our best bet!"

Jack just nodded, running off towards the mall, dodging through the cars and people alike. Maddie was right behind him. It took only a moment to find the door they needed. It was a service door, ROOFTOP ACCESS- AUTHORIZED PERSONS ONLY blazed across it in bold letters. Jack didn't even bother with the lock, blasting the door open with an ecto-gun he whipped out of his pocket. On his shoulders hung the Fenton Bazooka, already humming with charge. Maddie carried the Fenton Phantom-Neutralizer in her own hands. She flicked its lever, feeling it charge up as they ascended the stairs. They were halfway up when the rush of air sounded, signifying the arrival of Valerie. She began blasting as Jack busted out the door at the top of the stairwell. They arrived to a scene of Phantom in Vortex's grasp, pinned to the roof. Phantom squirmed as Valerie blasted Vortex in the head. Vortex released Phantom as he tumbled back, yelling. Phantom was in the air in no time, shooting Vortex with an ecto-blast.

Jack brought the bazooka up to his shoulder and aimed, just as Maddie did the same with the neutralizer. They both landed their marks with ease. Vortex was immediately sucked into the artificial ghost portal created by the bazooka at the same time that Phantom dropped like a rock. He only fell about twenty feet, but he hit hard, visibly shaking when he lifted himself up. Valerie was on him in seconds, ecto-gun blaring with charge. She began barking orders at him, tossing the rope to Maddie who tied him up quickly. He seemed oddly compliant with the requests, and something on his face made Maddie nervous. Almost like he knew what was happening.

"Okay, ghost, cough it up," Valerie interrogated, rain dissipating.

"Cough what up?" Phantom hissed back at her.

"Your secrets!"

"What secrets?"

"Valerie, please", Maddie brushed her shoulder as she passed the huntress. Maddie looked down at the ghost, a knot swelling in her gut. She hated looking at Phantom, he had always looked eerily like her son. Even worse was they carried the same given name. Daniel had never been a rare name, but it still made her uneasy nonetheless. "Okay, Phantom. Tell you what. You answer our questions truthfully and I'll set you free. Deal?"

"Depends on the kind of questions."

"Deal?" She glared at him, bright, purple eyes stared into unnaturally glowing green eyes.

"Fine… deal," he squirmed.

"This is an interrogation, ghost, deal with it," Jack pipped in, strapping the bazooka across his broad shoulders.

"Where did you come from? How did you get to the real world?" Maddie began with easy questions.

"I was born here."

" _After_ you died," Maddie scowled.

"I don't really remember it that well. The first time I saw the ghost zone, that is. I came through your portal, though."

"The Fenton portal? The one in our laboratory?"

"Yes," Phantom nearly whispered.

"Why?"

"Not sure. Cosmic coincidence maybe."

"Why are you here?"

"Cosmic coincidence."

"No, why did you stay? Why stay in Amity Park?"

"This town is my home. Why else would I be here?"

"Then why fight other ghosts? They're your kind, aren't they?" Maddie questioned, thinking maybe she could try and get information about his anomalies without questioning him directly.

"Seemed like the right thing to do," he shrugged.

Maddie stared daggers through the ghost. He completely avoided the second question. So, he knows. She pressed on, "Why fight your own kind?"

Phantom suddenly became much more interested in the ground than the three ghost hunters which faced him, "Humans fight their own kind. There's no difference."

"Yes there is," Maddie snapped.

"No there isn't," he shot back, staring at her. "Humans fight other humans every day. Over petty and grandiose things alike. Territory, religion, politics."

"War isn't the same as what you do."

"And how could you possibly know that?" Phantom's eyes began blaring, looking fierce.

"Because I know ghosts and I know that what you ghosts fight about isn't the same as what humans fight about."

"Then you don't know ghosts as well as you think," Phantom said, ice in his words.

Maddie knelt down on one knee, examining the ghost up-close, "But… you're not really a ghost… are you?"

"What are you talking about?" Phantom said, mockingly.

"When I took a sample of your ectoplasm," Maddie began, "I tested it. I found anomalies too strange to classify you as a true ghost."

"What kind of anomalies?" He asked, quizzically.

"I'm the interrogator here, not you."

"Then why did you even bring it up?"

"You obviously realize that you're unusual, that's a given. What I want to know is why. Why are you so unusual, and how?" Maddie tightened the rope, leaving him gasping for a moment.

"Look," he strained. "I already knew that I'm different. It's pretty obvious, I think. But, I don't know anything other than that, okay? I got zapped and ended up like this."

"Zapped?"

"I was electrocuted."

Maddie sneered, he hated how he said that. Saying how he died like it was the most casual thing in the world. Well, to a ghost, I suppose it is, she thought. Maddie looked up at Jack for some reinforcement. He just shrugged at her. Valerie stood next to him, wide-eyed and keenly listening. She turned back towards Phantom and almost fainted with what she saw. His eyes hadn't changed color or shape, but they had brightened. Not in a paranormal way, in an emotional way. Maddie gasped, hand over her heart. She could have sworn for a moment that she had looked into Danny's eyes. They sparkled, irises and pupils aligned just so. Jack was next to her in an instant, arm around her shoulder, asking if she was okay. Phantom eyed them nervously, inching backwards as if to put distance between them.

"Release him, Valerie," Maddie commanded, shakily. Maddie was on-edge. Seeing her sons eyes in… in that dead thing. Phantom was a ghost and nothing more. Nothing less. He and Danny may have had too many coincidences for comfort, but Maddie knew that this ghost in front of her wasn't her son… right?

"What? But we didn't get all the information out of him?" Valerie argued.

"Do what she says," Jack told her. Valerie huffed stomping over to Phantom, untying him from his bindings. Even as the ropes fell to the ground, he made no efforts to move. He switched from eyeing Valerie to Maddie, who still visibly shaken from what she had seen- or thought she had seen.

"Are you okay?" He asked, head nodding slightly to the right.

"Yes, now leave. I don't want to look at you right now," Maddie responded, turning her head towards Jack. Phantom stood, towering over Jack and Maddie, and only slightly taller than Valerie. He disappeared without another word. A small breeze caressed them a few seconds later.

* * *

Maddie sat in the living room, blanket wrapped around her, mug of decaf coffee in her hands. It was well past midnight, Jack and the kids had gone to bed hours ago. She couldn't shake the feeling she had about Phantom. The eyes that she looked into today, they were definitely Danny's. Her suspicions arose even further when he came home that evening covered in new bruises and a lame joke about the ghost attack at the mall.


	7. Truths

It had been a few days since the events which transpired on the roof of the shopping mall, but Maddie was still reeling. Every time she even began to think about it another gear of her mind locked into place. Danny and Phantom were the same person, they had to be. The first thing was the name, Danny _Fenton_ … Danny _Phantom_. This whole time Phantom had just been a pun of Fenton, Danny always did like puns… It would explain the absences at school, the random bruises, how he always seemed to miss his curfew. It explained why he frequently disappeared, why Sam and Tucker were always seen not too far from a ghost fight; it explained why Danny was always uncomfortable around Jack and Maddie when they began talking about destroying and dissecting ghosts, it explained why Jazz always stood up for Phantom. Of course it did, if anybody in this town knew Danny's secret it would be Sam, Tucker, and Jazz.

It was the accident with the ghost portal nearly three years ago. It had to be. Danny had stepped into the portal, activated it, and received a nasty electrocution. He'd been in the hospital nearly a week, but electricity wasn't the only thing that had ravaged him that day. There had to have been a faint amount of ectoplasm radiating off him since that day, explaining why all the Fenton's gadgets would always detect him. Had Danny known since the accident? Did he figure it out sometime in the hospital? Was it after? It had to have been after. The first time Phant- Danny was ever seen in Amity Park was a month after the accident. Maybe it had taken him that long to realize the full extent of the accident's impact on his life. Maybe even then he still didn't have full control. So many maybes…

Maddie was still so unsure of everything at this point. From a scientist's point of view, it was all speculation that Danny and Phantom were the same, but from a mother's point of view it was instinct. She'd seen the similarities since day one with them. They had always looked and acted very similar. Maddie had always chalked it up to coincidence. Seven billion people in the world and an untold number of ghosts- the chances that two would be similar would be vast, nearly 100%. But it didn't end there. Throughout the last three days, she had shut the portal on and off a seemingly infinite number of times. The day after the accident, Jack had decided it best to relocate the On/Off button to the outside of the portal, having had to unplug the damn thing just to turn it off. Now, Maddie stood in front of it, pushing the button which flicked it off. Back on. Back off. On. Off. On. Off.

She couldn't quite grasp it, why this portal had worked while the proto-portal back in college hadn't. It was nearly the same blueprints. The only major difference was the scale of this one- being nearly ten times as large. Perhaps it's the size? This one had an inward electrical charge instead of the proto-portal, which had spewed ectoplasm right out. Maybe… Maybe it was Danny. Perhaps he had been the key. The ectoplasm from the proto-portal launched at Vlad- the closest living thing, hitting him in face. That portal had never worked quite right after that. This portal had had a living person inside when it was turned on. The ectoplasm would have affected Danny's whole body instead of just the face like it had with Vlad. Maddie pondered this for a moment as she turned the portal back on. Earth was the realm of the living while the Ghost Zone was the realm of the dead. Off. Perhaps the portals needed a bridge between the two worlds in order to work. A half-human, half ghost hybrid. A human on Earth had been the bridge to the Ghost Zone by becoming half-ghost. Would a ghost attempting the same on the other side become half-human? It was a strange thing to think about.

Maddie turned the portal back on, watching it spark with a green flick as the swirl of the portal erupted, making a sheet of slowly spiraling ectoplasm. This portal had been turned off, dismantled, upgraded, and fixed more times than she could count. Why? If it needed a hybrid in order to work, why didn't it need to make one every time? Was it because it had already created a hybrid that was flourishing? If Danny lost his powers, would the portal need to create a new hybrid to work again? Maddie rubbed her temples, trying to ease an on-coming headache. This was so much to take in. Maddie left the portal alone, sitting down at the computer, head buried in her hands. She hasn't even told Jack about her suspicions. Inwardly, she doubted that's she will. Obviously, Danny had a reason to keep his powers a secret from the two of them, and, as a mother, she would never reveal a secret this big, even to his father. She wanted to find out for sure. She had meant to talk to Jazz days ago about Danny's secret, but Maddie had been so preoccupied, she all but forgot. Now that she knew what exactly that secret was, it really was time to talk to Jazz about it.

* * *

Maddie climbed the stairs quietly, trying to avoid suspicion from Jack, who was damn near cheering on the fudge baking. Once she reached the landing at the top, she spared a quick glace towards Danny's bedroom. The door was closed, but she could hear the faint sound of him playing video games- the 'pew pew's and his voice as he cursed out the console. She smiled and veered left, towards Jazz's room. She knocked and entered when her daughter beckoned her to. Once inside her daughter's room, she quietly closed the door and turned to face Jazz, who was sitting at her desk, nearly spilling over with papers. Maddie sat down on the bed, "Jazz, honey. I need to talk to you about your brother."

"Of course, Mom. What is it?" Jazz asked, sitting down next to Maddie.

"Well, I don't really know where to start with this one," Maddie said, clenching her hands together, tightly. "The other day Mr. Lancer called and asked me to come down. When I did, I was met with not only him, but Sam and Tucker. Mr. Lancer informed me that Danny hadn't been doing well in school. Missing class, not turning in work, that sort of thing. When I pushed for an explanation from Sam and Tucker, they just shielded themselves, basically refusing to explain why, just vaguely mentioning that he leaves sometimes. Couldn't get out of them why, though." Next to her, Jazz shifted slightly. "I spoke with Danny not too long after that, trying to understand why. He skipped around it, too."

"What are you saying, Mom?" Jazz asked, clearly uncomfortable.

"Jazz, honey, I was going to ask you what that secret could possibly be. I'm worried about him. Sure, he's been doing better, but I…" Maddie trailed off.

Jazz placed a hand on her mother's, "Please, Mom, continue."

"I feel like it's a ruse. To try and keep me from investigating further, but the evidence is so clear, Jazz," Maddie felt Jazz's hand tighten slightly, but said nothing. "I guess I really figured it out a few days ago, when we captured Phantom. I… I…," Maddie pursed her lips. "I was looking into Danny's eyes that day, wasn't I?"

Maddie looked over at Jazz, she was clutching the sheets of her bed so tightly that her knuckles were beginning to turn white. Maddie could tell that Jazz didn't know what to say, so she continued, "Danny and Phantom being the same person makes more sense that I'd care to admit. How Phantom was seen less as Danny's school attendance increased, how all our inventions hone in on him, why he's so uncomfortable around me and Jack…"

"Mom?"

Maddie looked at her daughter, tears in her eyes, "Am I a terrible mother?"

"Oh, Mom, of course not," Jazz said, wrapping her arms around Maddie tightly. "You're a great mother."

"But I've said all those awful things about Phan- Danny right in front of him. I shot at him, Jazz. My own child…"

"You didn't know."

"I should have. It was all so obvious…"

"Mom," Jazz started. "I'm flattered that you came to me about this, really I am. However, I think that this is something you should talk to Danny about. Explain to him, he'll understand. I know he will."

Maddie sighed, "You're right Jasmine, I'll speak with him tonight."

* * *

It was a quarter to ten o'clock and the Fenton household was winding down for the day, but Maddie still had one more thing to do that day. She wanted to speak with Danny, about his powers, about everything. He was still dressed in his day clothes, standing whilst fiddling with the antenna on his television. While the door was slightly ajar, Maddie knocked softly on it, pushing the door a few more inches open as she did so.

"Hey, Mom," came Danny's voice.

"Danny, sweetheart, I wanted to talk to you about something," Maddie said softly, closing the door behind her as she entered.

"Yeah, I know," Danny responded, leaving the antennas alone for a moment to look at her. "Jazz told me."

Maddie sighed, "She told you that I was going to talk to you or what it was about?"

"Both… And, well, I don't really know what to say."

"I do," Maddie yipped through tears. She grabbed him in a great, big bear hug, squeezing tightly. "I love you, Danny."

"I love you too, Mom," Danny gasped through her tight squeeze.

She let go, worry in her eyes, "So, you don't hate me?"

"Why would I hate you?"

"All of the awful things that I've said about you. Danny, we shot at you."

"But you never did hurt me. Mom, I understand. It's not like I was never going to tell you and Dad, I just didn't really know how to tell you about it until it seemed a bit too late. I mean, it's been almost three years. It seemed kinda pointless to tell you so late."

"Oh, Danny, three years and your father and I never realized that we were shooting at you," Maddie buried her face in her palm. "I'm so sorry."

"You have absolutely nothing to be sorry for. This was all my fault, I should have told you sooner."

"We're such fools, two of the world's foremost ghost hunters and we never figured out that our son was one."

"Everybody makes mistakes."

"Not this severe."

"It's not severe. I told you that this was my problem to deal with, and deal with it I did. I always tried to do the right thing. Maybe it didn't always work out the right way, but I tried. That's what you did, you tried. I can't fault you for that."

"I'm so sorry. Nothing in this world could ever describe how sorry I am."

"I forgave you long ago. It's water under the bridge now."

"Danny, when did you get so mature?" Maddie asked, hoping to lighten the mood.

"Sometime over the past few years," he chuckled.

Maddie laughed. It didn't take long until Danny launched into the story that cumulated the past three years. A whole life she knew nothing about. She listened intently as he told his story to her. The next morning, Jack asked her why she hadn't come to bed until three o'clock in the morning.

* * *

 **A/N: I maintain that Jack isn't really as much of an idiot as he's portrayed in the series. There's no way that after the accident (it's implied that they knew about it) Jack would just let the button stay on the inside. Also, I have this dumb headcanon that the portal Plasmius has is really the remnants of the proto-portal (and we're just gonna ignore the portal Maddie had in Masters of all Time).**


	8. Epilogue

It was a warm summer day, only a week since school had let out. Danny was moving onto his junior year come fall and Jazz had graduated valedictorian. An acceptance letter from Harvard hung on their refrigerator. Danny had been the first to see it after Jazz hung it there inconspicuously one day and he had arranged a surprise party in a single morning for her. Apparently, she had been debating whether or not to go, but with both Jack and Maddie now knowing Danny's secret, she felt that she could, but had made a promise to write every day. She had already begun packing, mostly small things, simply because she couldn't contain her excitement.

Jack had been quick to accept Danny, just as Maddie had done. In fact, he wept with joy that his son was carrying on the ghost-fighting legacy and wasted no time in making an action figure of him. Danny had explained everything to them. He would tell stories all day about his various adventures as Phantom. He told them about Pariah Dark and how the ecto-skeleton was really lost to Freakshow and the Reality Gauntlet, and everything in between. However, he stopped abruptly and brushed past something when he brought up the subject of the C.A.T. Maddie had chalked this to being a story that Danny wasn't quite ready to tell yet.

Most importantly, to Jack anyway, was that Danny told them all he knew about the ghosts which frequented the area. He named ghosts like Penelope Spectra, Undergrowth, and Hotep-Ra. Oddly, Maddie had noted, Danny even had a few ghost allies. He seemed particularly fond of Frostbite, Wulf, and ghost he would only refer to as 'Danielle'. That seemed to be another story he wasn't willing to share quite yet. Most of all, he talked about Skulker; about how Skulker had always wanted to skin and display him, yet always seemed to be the first to help in a crisis. Apparently, the ghost was nothing more than a little blob of ectoplasm. Jack eventually asked Danny about who Jack had dubbed the Wisconsin Ghost. Danny shrugged that one off, too, quickly replying, 'Oh, that's just Plasmius. He and I have beef, but it's not too important'.

Since Maddie's discovery of Danny's secret, the three (sometimes four, if Jazz gave in and joined) had become a legendary ghost-fighting team. Occasionally, Sam and Tucker would join. They even had to give Jack a tutorial on his own weapons once in a while. Amity Park had become suspicious of this at first. The Fentons fighting with Danny Phantom? The whole town was abuzz for weeks. Speculations and conspiracy theories had popped up online nearly overnight. As the days went on, Danny became increasingly concerned with it, as more than a handful of people had figured out who he was. Nobody took them seriously of course, and when the speculation was at its peak, Jack nearly threatened them all on live TV. The speculations had essentially ceased after that.

Maddie and Jack had even calibrated nearly all their weapons and gadgets to ignore Danny's ecto-signature. It was a feat which had proved quite tricky to do, but they managed. It had made Jack and Maddie much more at ease to fight alongside Danny when they knew their weapons wouldn't hurt him. However, they never did manage to get the Fenton Thermoses to ignore Danny, and Jack once trapped the poor kid inside for nearly five hours when they finally managed to release him into the Ghost Zone. About an hour later, Danny came back, covered in goop and mumbling about somebody called Youngblood.

Now, all three of them were outside the taco stand down the street, taking care of some low-level ghost that Danny could easily have taken care of on his own. Jack, however, insisted that he and Maddie be there, despite Maddie now training Danny in hand-to-hand combat. Overall, it had been a good couple of months. Because of all she had said about Phantom behind his back, she had apologized to Danny more times than she could count. Danny promising each time that she had no reason to apologize in the first place. Her son - her Danny - was the hero of Amity Park! It was incredible to think about.

Maddie could not possibly be more proud.

* * *

 **A/N: Thanks everyone, it's been real~ *sunglasses emoji***


End file.
